Dhaka moves 2 notches up, now 4th least liveable city

Dhaka is the fourth least liveable city in the world although it has moved two places up in this year's Global Liveability Index.

The largest city of the country was rated 137th among 140 cities in the survey carried out by the Economist Intelligence Unit.

Last year, Dhaka was ranked 139th.

Dhaka is only ahead of Lagos of Nigeria, Tripoli of Libya and Damascus of Syria. It scored 38.7 out of the ideal score of 100, unchanged from last year's. Dhaka has stuck in the same score since 2011.

The rating, part of the Worldwide Cost of Living Survey, quantifies the challenges that might be presented to an individual's lifestyle across five broad categories of stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education and infrastructure.

On stability, Dhaka scored 50 while in healthcare, the score is 29.2, culture and environment 43.3, education 41.7 and infrastructure 26.8.

The ranking showed some improvement for Bangladesh over the years after languishing at the bottom of the table in 2012.

Melbourne in Australia remains the most liveable of the 140 cities surveyed, very closely followed by the Austrian capital, Vienna.

Although the top five cities remain unchanged, the past year has seen increasing instability across the world, causing volatility in the scores of many cities. Sydney, for example, has fallen by four places, to move out of the 10 most liveable cities, owing to a heightened perceived threat of terrorism.

But “violent acts of terrorism” have affected many countries and while not a new phenomenon, the “frequency and spread have increased noticeably and become even more prominent in the past year,” said the Global Liveability Report.

Jon Copestake, editor of the report, told The Independent: "The latest rankings paint a very sombre picture.

"The fact that one in five cities has seen its liveability score decline reflects a worrying backdrop and one that is depressingly familiar given that similar declines were reported last year.

“What is interesting is that it is not just the threat of terrorism that is lowering stability. The last few years have seen an intensification of protests, and border disputes as well as the ongoing armed conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa.”

There have been more than 1,000 terrorist attacks in 2016 so far – with incidents in France, Turkey, the US and Belgium among the most high profile.

Violent acts of terrorism have been reported in many countries, including Turkey, Australia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, France, Belgium and the US.

“This has been a year undoubtedly marked by terrorism,” said the report.